Jon Lewis: England Women coach is relishing his first role working with female cricketers | Cricket News

England Women’s head coach Jon Lewis is relishing his first role working with women, insisting there is very little difference between his current position and previous men’s roles.

Former Gloucestershire and England seamer Lewis succeeded Lisa Keightley after she stepped down from the role to move back to Australia this summer.

After retiring from playing, Lewis took up a role as the head coach of Sussex in 2015 followed by his position as England U19s bowling coach. He went on to become bowling coach on the staff of former England head coach Chris Silverwood, before undertaking his new role in the women’s game, where the similarities for Lewis have been glaring.

“You’re always evolving and always learning,” Lewis said. “I coach people, not gender and I still stand by that. Everyone’s an individual. You try and coach them as individuals and bring them the support they need at that point in their careers.

“We’ve got a very wide group of support staff here who do support everyone in different ways and my role is to make sure that the individual is as well looked after as possible, to make them able to play their best cricket and that doesn’t change between men and women.

“I don’t think there’s a great deal of difference to be honest with you. The challenge is being aware. I had a few more tears than we would have in the men’s game but you still get tears in the men’s game as well. I would rather that the players were really open and showed their emotion than hold them in. I found that really refreshing because you know very much where you stand with the women, whereas in the men’s game they will hold a lot more back and be a lot more insular with their emotions.”

England have just returned from their first tour under Lewis, leaving the Caribbean having won all eight matches, concluding the tour in spectacular fashion on Thursday by skittling their hosts for 43 – the West Indies’ record lowest T20 total – at Barbados.

It is the ideal start for Lewis, who admitted he has inherited a better group of players than he initially thought after taking the reins last month. He feels there is more of an attacking mindset within the group than in times gone by and he hopes they can take that attitude into the T20 World Cup which starts in South Africa in seven weeks’ time.

“I was more than happy to lose games on this tour as long as we shifted the way we wanted to play – that’s the thing I’m most pleased about,” he said. “It’s the way we’ve approached the cricket and the attacking mindset they’ve taken into the games. I feel like that’s a real shift from what I’ve watched in the past. At times I think they’ve played safe.

“I did know we had a lot of talent in the squad. But I didn’t realise how good they actually were, I really didn’t. The talent in the room is really high.

“The biggest challenge is maintaining confidence and belief in the way we play so when pressure ramps up in bigger games, the ability to hold on to belief and trust in what we are trying to do will work.”

England attempt to improve on their semi-final result in 2020 last time out and end Australia’s recent dominance at World Cups.

With captain Heather Knight and star all-rounder Nat Sciver back in tow in the Caribbean after being unavailable for portions of the summer, England appear well-placed for the upcoming challenges.

Alice Capsey is progressing well in her recovery from a broken left collarbone and while Lewis admitted there have been “really positive noises”, the teenage all-rounder has “still got quite a way to go”.

“We’ve obviously got some decisions to make about what the final 15 will be. I think we’ll do that in the early part of January and we’ll let the girls know then where we’re standing,” Lewis added. “What I am really pleased about is the quality of skill level across the whole squad.

“It’s about winning pressure moments against good opposition. What I can see in the group is there isn’t any fear, they’re willing to have a go. I’d rather us lose having a go than lose not.”